While activists around the world criticize pending legislation in Uganda they call the “kill the gays” bill, some Americans are being outed for their connections to those involved in the proposed statute. The latest is Richard Cohen, who claims he has successfully counseled thousands of gays to become straight. He was sliced, diced and grilled Tuesday night by Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC program.

Homosexuality has long been illegal in Uganda. But that country’s parliament is expected to vote soon on a bill that would make penalties harsher. Among its provisions: men and women convicted of having sex with somebody of the same gender would receive, at a minimum, a life sentence. Those having homosexual sex more than once, or with a minor, could get the death penalty. Anybody knowing of homosexual activity who does not report it, could be sentenced to prison.

Cohen is the founder of the International Healing Foundation. He describes himself as a former homosexual who converted to heterosexuality and has been married for 27 years and is the father of three children. He claims people aren’t born homosexual, but become attracted to the same sex due to a combination of psychological and environmental factors. People with “unwanted same-sex attraction” can therefore be counseled into becoming heterosexual, he says.

In March, one of Cohen’s “sexual reorientation coaches” went to Uganda to speak to parliament and at an anti-gay conference, where he said gays can change their sexual behavior. Weeks later, the anti-gay bill was drafted. On her show, Maddow showed a video clip of one of the leading proponents of the Uganda bill holding up Cohen’s book, Coming Out Straight, and summing up some of its conclusions as proof that the Ugandan legislation is necessary. That book includes a number of questionable statistics about gays that Cohen attributed to Paul Cameron, an anti-gay zealot who has published numerous pseudo-scientific studies about homosexuality over the years. Cameron has been booted out of the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association. After being prodded by Maddow, Cohen said he would delete those statistics before the next edition of his book is printed. He emphatically added that he opposes the Ugandan bill. “We believe in tolerance and love for all people.” But Maddow pointed out that Cohen’s book and those bogus statistics are being used by the bill’s proponents to argue for its passage.

Even more embarrassing for Cohen was when Maddow, reading from another of his books, Gay Children, Straight Parents, recounted factors he listed as causes of homosexuality — race, adoption, divorce, religion and death of a parent among them. “Race? That’s not in there,” a surprised Cohen said. Yes it is, Maddow assured him, on page 75. Oops. “How does race make you gay?” she asked. “It doesn’t,” Cohen conceded.

Cohen isn’t the only American feeling some heat over the Ugandan anti-gay bill. Activists have been pressuring California megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren to denounce the legislation. Warren once worked closely with a Ugandan preacher who is a high-profile anti-gay activist there. And an Iowa gay rights group called One Iowa is conducting a petition drive demanding that one of that state’s senators, Chuck Grassley, denounce the Ugandan bill. Grassley was targeted because he’s a member of an organization called The Family or The Fellowship, a secretive fundamentalist group of high-ranking government, military and business officials in America and abroad with ties to Uganda legislators thought to support the anti-gay bill.

Nope, by “suspect” I refer to a class of persons having the potential for civil rights abuse under the 14th – I am not sure where that term came from but it’s correct. Of course, I agree these protections have been a long time coming. If it had not been for ACT UP and other such organizations that were widely criticized in the 1980s (even accused of spreading HIV under the most vicious possible right wing attacks), we would never be where we are today for sexuality rights.

That is what gives me hope for immigrants’ rights. In the 1980s, the thought of same-sex marriage rights, much less an end to discrimination, was so remote that few predicted the success of the social movement behind it. Through careful education, persistance, and by refusing to accept the majority view as valid, the gay rights movement shows the immigration movement the way forward.

The level of discrimination and hate against immigrants is every bit as strong, irrational, and pervasive as anti-gay hate was 20 or 30 years ago. I hope it doesn’t take 30 years to get over the nativism in America, but it might unless concerned civil rights activists mobilize now and make this issue not go away.

Maybe undocumented immigrants should co-opt the term “illegals” in the same way that the gay community reclaimed “queer” (“we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it). Epithet reclamation can be very effective for stealing the chi of the angry right.

Snorlax

Uh, I think you mean PROTECTED class.

And that’s about to happen. The Democrats are going to pass a national civil rights law extending protection to GLBT Americans.

GBLT Americans are already covered under the new Hate Crimes bill signed by Obama last October. The FBI will now investigate GBLT hate crimes when local jurisdictions refuse to do so, which they unfortunately do too often.

We now have GBLT coverage in Colorado under our state anti-discrimination laws, and other states have done this as well. But we really need a Federal law.

beholder

I think sexual orientation should be considered a suspect class under the 14th Amendment.

Unless we have constitutional protection for sexual preference or orientation, we will never be able to adequately address the implied norm of compulsory heterosexuality in America.

“Normal” human sexuality is about as broad and diverse as the human population itself. Sexuality is also an intrinsic human characteristic that is at the core of a person’s identity — every bit as much as race, gender, national origin, etc.

It is time for America to codify sexuality and sexual diversity as a basic human right.

Snorlax

Iran has been hanging gays for years now. Once they hanged two teenage boys for being gay. Hanged them from a 30 ton crane and the video was on the Internet.

What is shocking is that the Religious Reich Republicans think this is okay. And we are not talking about just any ol’ fundies, we’re talking about “The Family”, which has a lot of clout on Capitol Hill. Holy mackeral!!

There are plenty of ignorant rednecks in the rural US who would be happy to murder gays if they could get away with it. Gays are on the Klan’s “must lynch” list.

Just like there were plenty of ordinary Germans, NOT just the SS fanatics, who had no problem shooting Jews in the neck. Ordinary men did the dirty work of the Holocaust.

L and M

Snorlax quotes an estimate of a half-million gays in Uganda. I’m pretty sure the Ugandan government would say the number is far, far smaller, though they apparently aren’t ready to go as far as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who claimed some years ago (like Iran’s Ahmadinejad more recently) that there are no gays in his country.

If something as irrational as all of this can be described as a “plan,” then I’d guess the real plan is to hold some high-profile executions to frighten other gays into going deeper into hiding or leaving the country, and then declaring victory. “Scared straight” indeed.

Snorlax

What is really scary about this Ugandan gay-bashing law is not just that it would result in genocide against gays, but it also imposes an onerous, Orwellian police state “rat out your family and friends” requirement in the law.

Ugandans would be required to turn in anybody they think is gay. Turn in your friends and family…turn them in or go to prison yourself.

This is what Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia did.

And what is REALLY scary is that the Religious Reich Republicans are seriously looking at this horrendous, crime-against-humanity legislation as a good idea.

The final solution to the Religious Reich’s gay problem.

beholder

America has given much to the world, and much of it has been evil. Unfotunately, we don’t seem to realize in this country that the rooster comes home to roost.

Case in point: why do you think al Qaeda is out cutting people’s heads off on videos, if not in response to Hollywood and our pathological addiction to the television screen? We empower our nation’s enemies through our own ignorance and inaction.

Snorlax

The Religious Reich has already handed death sentences to a lot of Ugandans.

Before they came to Uganda, the country had an effective AIDS prevention program centered around condom use and education.

The Religious Reich got the Ugandan government to throw out that program and replace it with “Abstinence Only”.
The AIDS rate doubled.

This means the Religious Reich needlessly caused AIDS infections, which probably led to deaths.

Snorlax

Uganda has an estimated half million gays. What are they going to do, put them all in prison for life?

A third-world country like Uganda cannot afford that.

More likely, most of them will be convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, taken out and shot.

Would Jesus condone this?

Just what we need, another genocidal bloodbath in Africa. Didn’t Uganda learn anything from Rwanda?